Steve Harvey: “Load shedding is preventing me from buying a house in South Africa”
Well, load shedding has been taking a toll on many South Africans and it seems to be our new normal too. Mzansi has since adjusted to the ever-changing load shedding slots. We might have embraced it well but that’s not the case with some foreign internationals who want to do business in South Africa or even purchase some real estates.
It’s one thing when the problems a country faces affects only those living within its border. It’s a completely different thing when those problems start affecting people that don’t live in the country.
That is the case with load shedding, a phenomenon so unique to South Africans that we often have to explain what it actually is to people in 194 countries. It turns out that American media personality and “Family Feud” presenter Steve Harvey just can’t wrap his head around load shedding.
The star recently expressed his dismay about how Eskom just can’t keep the lights on. During an interview with journalist Devi Govender, Harvey revealed that he would love to buy a house in Mzansi after the success of his popular quiz show in the country.
Steve Harvey: “Load shedding is preventing me from buying a house in South Africa”
However, he said the constant load shedding might be the reason why he doesn’t.
“Dear Eskom, I’d love to purchase a house here but I would like to be able to walk in and have the lights on,” he said.
“Why, on a continent with the most natural resources than any other continent in the world, can’t we have the lights on all the time?
The situation seems to be more of an embarrassment of late. Eskom is implementing load-shedding this week, with stage 1 from 5 pm to 10 pm on Tuesday and downgraded from stage 2 after generation capacity improved.
“Over the past 24 hours, Eskom teams have returned seven generation units to service. This has helped ease the supply constraints and enabled Eskom to suspend load shedding at this point. However, this is currently insufficient to fully supply the evening peak,” said the embattled power utility in a statement.
This is not the first time Steve has expressed shock about load shedding. In an episode of “Family Feud” last year, he said the concept of load shedding was “stupid”.
“That’s stupid. Who thought of that?” he asked. There is a lot of electricity. Rich people got together and got you thinking there isn’t enough but they are still charging you for it.”